July 6, 2012, 2:30 pm (CST) - At 2:00 pm today a call was placed by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 21 President-Business Manager and SCT-3 Chairman Ron Kastner to AT&T informing them that an overwhelming 87.5% of the IBEW?s membership voted to REJECT the tentative one-year agreement. Kastner expressed during his call to AT&T the union?s request to immediately resume negotiations with AT&T to reach an agreement IBEW members will accept.
It was on May 30, 2012, that the IBEW SCT-3 and AT&T reached a tentative agreement that would have extended the existing contract by 12 months. The agreement covers approximately 7,000 AT&T employees. Most are IBEW Local Union 21 members in Illinois and NW Indiana, and the rest are IBEW members spread out in several other states. The current contract had been set to expire on June 23, 2012. Since the Extension Agreement did not ratify, the terms of the 2009 Agreement are now extended without modification until August 11, 2012 11:59 p.m., Ce